Mutual Indwelling

The Easter glow has moved … from an outer experience then to an inward reality now. He is no longer where he once was. He is now where we are. We shine because he has come to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit.

 

But we often feel we have lost the glow. In fact, we feel pretty dull. Yet feelings are not facts…we are learning that. So the Church takes us by the hand and leads us into Ordinary Time by assuring us we will have food for the journey…his very self.

 

This month opens with the great celebration of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. We celebrate the wonder of the Lord’s genius. “I am going to my Father…yet I will be with you always…” and he means it. It is his final step down into time/space. He becomes our food. First step…he presses our humanness with all its brokenness to himself. Second step…he dives like an Olympic diver into the cesspool of our sin and violence. Third step…he bounces up out of death to show us it will not hold us either. Then the final step…he bends down into Bread…the Bread of life. From him we learn that we too must be ready to be blessed, broken, and shared.

 

So we are now launched into the troubled waters of this next part of our lives. Our little boats will be buffeted by the wind and waves coming from the evening news. The Church in the Sundays of June will unfold to us what we need to remember to guide our little boat. Most of all, we need to remember that he is curled up in the boat with us, willing to be roused when things really get rough. Yes, we dwell in him and he in us. It is a mutual indwelling. We don’t ever travel alone.

 

Loving Lord,

You’ve been through it all.

You’ve been there…done that.

But you are no longer there, in those times of long ago.

You are now where we are

in our times.

Don’t leave us orphans.

Stay with us for the day is nearly spent

and the night comes on.

Fill us with your Spirit,

That strong wind that guides our little boat;

That fire that warms what is chill, that water that cleanses;

The oil that heals, the blood that saves;

The wine that makes us drunk with love

and the dove that brings us peace.

…evolving? Toward Mutual Indwelling?

As we move toward our Business Chapter, we continue to pray, “Holy Mystery evolving, energize our response.” Have you wondered what these words really mean? Let’s check it out.

The Holy Mystery is God, right? Not so fast. God doesn’t evolve. God is the hiddenness that calls forth evolution into the future. God is the Word in whom all things come to be. God is the Spirit of self-giving love in which all things unfold into the future. God is love-hidden; God is love-expressed; God is love-given as gift. So what is this evolving all about? What’s evolving?

In an amazing act of self-giving love, the Mystery we call “God” burst out of its dance of love to create the angelic and material world. This outburst of love was a single Word, and “all that came to be, came to be in him, and without him was made nothing that was made.” On the science side this breath of love, this outburst, is called “the big bang.” Atoms met and kissed and basic elements appeared. We finally appeared, made of cosmic soup…our physical frames made of stardust. So…who ever said this evolving is finished? Scripture reminds us, “We know not what we shall be, but we shall be like him…”

Our DNA is partner in a wedding. The eternal Word married us, never to part. The mystery of the incarnation is the wedding, and Mary’s womb, the wedding chamber. The Word has bonded the Godhead to us, so where we go, God goes. There is no gap. We made a sin-gap, but he healed it with his blood. There is no gap. And we are evolving. So the Bridegroom goes along for the ride. In fact, that presence will make sure we arrive according to plan. When the risen Jesus ascended to his Father, the first thing God said, was “Son, where are the rest?” And he said, “They’re coming, Father, they’re coming.”

So we live our ordinary days trying to remember “I am in you, and you are in me” a mutual indwelling. It is we who are evolving. But he is there…the unchanging One, carrying us like a bride into our future. He in us and we in him…that is the full Holy Mystery. There is no gap. The Word, bonded to our humble humanness, carries us in time/space into all that we can be. He and we together are The Holy Mystery evolving. For without him we are nothing, and can do nothing. With him we are his Body, calling all of culture to the dream of God, his love-breath energizing us with the same Spirit love-breath that burst forth long ago. So we pray….”Holy Mystery evolving, energize our response.” “Free us, enlighten us, seize us; lead us, awaken us, draw us; guide us, open us, urge us; nudge us, move us, teach us.”

“He is not here…where He was…

With the coming of May, we are still in the Easter glow. We appear in the darkness of human struggle like some human firefly. Faith lights us up and yes, by faith we can see in the dark.

 

Easter calls us back to our baptism, when we shed our mourning clothes and he claimed us as his own. But we forget. So the Church in these Sundays keeps reminding us of our primary intimacy: God-with-skin-on, as the pre-schoolers say. He is the one by whom we are saved.

 

We are identified as those who “know” him…and he “knows” us. He marries us in the wedding chamber of the virgin’s womb. Then he hob-nobs with us, and we can’t quite figure him out. Then he goes to the depth of our violence toward one another…only to let it swallow him. But he is a poison-pill, for in destroying him physically, death itself is destroyed. It splits open, and we get a peek at what comes after…for he is the Truth that loves, and he cannot be destroyed. But wonder of wonders, he show us that this is our future too. He then carries our humble humanness back home with him like a bride over the threshold…and breathes his Spirit into us to help us remember that ‘til the end of time he has relocated: “I am in you, and you are in me.”

 

With the feast of the Trinity we remember once again that our ideas of God have been far too small. He shows us that the immensity of God is three “Somethings…” Love as Source, Love as Expression, and Love as merciful Self-Gift dancing around in an eternal unity dance.

 

How on earth are we to respond to all this wonder?

 

I think we learn how to respond from …the Lady. We call her “Our Blessed Lady.” May is her month, when all of nature renews itself, and even the flowers proclaim that God intends people to come in different colors.

 

Mary is just one of us. As one of us she is the arch-type of what human response can be. She is told of a plan, and she says…”Yes, of course…” and knowingly signs a blank check. She brings him forth from her own everyday life. She hangs on when her whole world falls apart…she waits in the darkness of Holy Saturday. Sound familiar?

 

Makes me think of those I know who are still saying, “Yes, of course…” to very difficult commitments…of those who labor in the midst of ridicule to bring forth justice…of those whose lives have been shattered…of those who wait for release from prisons physical, mental, and spiritual. Yes, Mary is one of us…she says, “…been there…done that.” She hangs on in the dark…and so must we.

 

He is now where we are…”     St. John Chrysostom